Most of the Jews should be cut off.' The passage in Isaiah, therefore, IS strictly applicable to the apostle's object.
(29) The second passage quoted by the ' apostle is from Isa. 1: 9, Except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, been made like unto Gomorrah, The object of this quotation is the same as that of the preceding, viz. to show that being Israelites was not enough to secure either exemption from divine judgments, or the enjoy- ment of God's favour. The passage is perfectly in point, for although the prophet is speaking of the national judgments which the people had brought upon themselves by their sins, and by which they were well nigh cut off entirely, yet it was necessarily involved in the destruction of the people for their idolatry and other crimes, that they perished from the kingdom of God. Of course the passage strictly proves what Paul designed to establish, viz. that the Jews, as Jews, were as much exposed to God's judgments as others, and consequently could lay no specia claim to admission into the kingdom of heaven.
Paul here again follows the Septuagint. The only difference, how ever, is that the Greek version has a seed, instead of a remnant, as it is in the Hebrew. The sense is precisely the same. The Hebrew word means that which remains; and seed, as used in this passage, means the seed preserved for sowing. The figure, therefore, is striking and beau- tiful. Lord of hosts is a frequent designation for the Supreme God in the Old Testament. As the word host is used in reference to any multi- tude arranged in order, as of men in an army, of angels, of the stars, or of all the heavenly bodies, including the -sun and moon ; so the expres- sion Lord of hosts may mean Lord of armies. Lord of angels, or Lord of heaven, or of the universe as a marshalled host; see 1 Kings 22: 19, " I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven stand- ing by him;" 2 Chron. 18 : 18. Ps. 103: 21. 148: 2, "Praise ye him, all his angels, praise ye him, all his hosts." In other passages the reference is, with equal distinctness, to the stars, Jer. 33 : 22. Deut. 4 : 19, and frequently. It is most probable, therefore, that God is called Lord of hosts in reference to his headship over the whole heavens, and all that they contain, Lord of hosts being equivalent to Lord of the universe.
(30) Having proved that God was free to call the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, into his kingdom, and that it had been predicted that the great body of the Jevt^s were to be rejected, he comes now to state the imme- diate ground of this rejection. What shall we say then? This may mean either, ' What is the inference from the preceding discussion V and the answer follows, * The conclusion is, the Gentiles are called and the Jews rejected;' or, ' What shall we say, or object to the fact that the Gentiles are accepted,'- &c. &c. But the former explanation is better suited to the context, especially to v. 32, and to the apostle's common use of this expression ; see v. 14, ch. 7: 7 8 : 31.
That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have at-